Sonny Dykes and the TCU Horned Frogs came to Big 12 Football Media Days understandably confident.
After consecutive bowl wins in 9-4 finishes, the Dykes ship emerges as one of the league’s more interesting programs entering the 2026 regular season with a roster retooled and still largely ignored by much of the college football national media despite appearing in a national title game just three-plus years ago.
Dykes, in his first season going 13-2 in 2022, was the consensus National Coach of the Year that season. During his visit with ESPNU at Big 12 Football Media Days, Dykes shared his vision for returning the Horned Frogs to the College Football Playoff:
“I’m proud of what we’ve done,” Dykes said. “Year 1 was pretty wild to go 13-2 the first year (and) kinda set the bar for the program… we want to get back to that. We’ve won 18 games the last two years, which on paper looks pretty good and I’m pretty proud of that, but we’ve left some opportunities on the table… We’ve made some changes within our program this year that’ll hopefully give us the opportunity to close those games out and get back in the CFP where we belong because we really do believe our program is capable of doing that.”
A CLOSER LOOK AT TCU
UConn’s Gordon Sammis to replace Kendal Briles (now at South Carolina) as offensive coordinator, and he’ll being doing so without Josh Hoover (now at Indiana) and instead Harvard transfer Jaden Craig to take up the quarterbacking role.
The offense returns some firepower in receivers Jordan Dwyer, Ed Small and South Alabama transfer Jeremy Scott to lend the Ivy League arm some instant options; The offensive line should be strong enough for Sammi’s pass-conscious offense that made the Huskies so successful over the last two years. Running back Jeremy Payne’s breakout in Year 2 labeled him another leader with already established ties in the locker room.
Defensively, TCU’s deep secondary – featuring Jamel Johnson at safety and Vernon Glover at corner – will make it difficult for opponents to deal the Frogs their own medicine. Factor in two returning tackles, Ansel Din-Mbuh and Connor Lingren, and the Andy Avalos defense is more than capable. The only opening is for a designated pass rusher, which Western Kentucky transfer Koron Hayward may fill in time.
You can check out the TCU Horned Frogs odds in the Big 12, and the rest of the college football betting odds, on FanDuel.
SCHEDULE OUTLOOK
The consensus for TCU is 6.5 wins entering the season, and it’s one of the easiest overs on the board. The Horned Frogs could easily open the season 4-0: North Carolina (Aug. 29) in Ireland, Grambling State (Sept. 12) at home, Arkansas State (Sept. 19) at home, and UCF on the road (Sept. 26). An Oct. 3 home game with BYU, ranked preseason No. 12, is the first true litmus test for Dykes and company.
The schedule doesn’t get much easier from there. After another road trip to Baylor, then two home games with West Virginia and Kansas, the Horned Frogs must survive a gauntlet at Arizona, home for Kansas State, Utah and finally ending the regular season at Texas Tech. It’s a tough final stretch with few breaks entering a prospective Big 12 title game, should TCU be in the mix come November.
After two seasons above or near the middle of the table conference-wise, and TCU break through?
